Two practical simulators of a traveling mobile robot equipped with optical mice and their optimal parameter setting

This paper presents two practical simulators of a traveling mobile robot that is equipped with optical mice and the optimal setting of their controllable parameters. It is assumed that three optical mice are installed at the bottom of a mobile robot, from which the traveling velocity of a mobile robot can be estimated. First, taking structural simplicity and user convenience into account, two practical designs of mobile robot traveling simulator using optical mice are proposed, which allow 1 DOF and 2 DOF traveling simulation. Second, the velocity kinematics of the mobile robot traveling simulator is formulated, in which the mobile robot traveling simulator generates the velocity measurements of optical mice that are applied to a mobile robot under simulation. Third, for a given velocity of a mobile robot under simulation, the optimal parameter setting of the mobile robot traveling simulator is described, which minimizes the discrepancy between the desired and the actual velocity measurements of optical mice. Fourth, computer simulation results are given to compare the parameter setting and the simulation capability between the two designs of a mobile robot traveling simulator.